So here we are again – seems like only yesterday that we were going through the difficult task of picking the BIG Awards 2012 finalists…. and now over a year later we are about to announce the finalists for the 2013 competition, and have had a full year supporting last year’s winners Snap Fashion and Digital Shadows.

The BIG Awards is one of the 4 main components of Cisco’s British Innovation Gateway (BIG) programme, which forms the core of our innovation-based legacy from London 2012.

So much has happened in the last 12 months it’s hard to fathom and already both 2012 winners are moving their businesses forward in so many ways. Snap Fashion launched in Singapore and Digital Shadows received Cool Vendor 2013 status from Gartner. It seems like they are the “grown-ups” to the new talent coming through – I have to say it was great to see Jenny, CEO from Snap Fashion, and Alastair, CEO from Digital Shadows, offering their advice and experience at our recent semi-final event at the Hospital Club in Covent Garden.

As a team we were wondering how we would match the quality of the 6 finalists from 2012. But when we first glanced at the early submissions for the 2013 competition we knew we had no need to be worried – the entries did not disappoint and once again the judging panel was set a very hard task to pick 20 semi-finalists and then in the last couple of weeks the finalists.

For as long as I remember, robots have always been cool. Perhaps it’s my passion for all things futuristic, but I don’t think I am alone in saying robots have provided a glimpse of what could be possible. Looking at today’s Internet of Everything (IoE) world, robots have advanced from the 1950s tin wind-up toy robots and the affable C-3P0 and R2-D2 from George Lucas’s Star Wars, to emerging technology that has the potential to improve our lives and increase shared connections.

Today’s “Ask the Futurist” question is focused on how robotic technology and its supporting networks will evolve over time. Here’s the question from William Maguire, a wireless engineer.

Question: “How do you think mesh networking will affect robotics in the next 20 years?”

As the key delivery model for the Internet of Everything (IoE) economy, cloud is helping to drive sweeping changes across nearly all aspects of our lives. But while the growth trajectory of cloud has been carefully charted, there has been comparatively little insight into its impact on IT organizations. To gain a better understanding, Cisco® Consulting Services, in partnership with Intel®, undertook an extensive global survey of 4,226 IT leaders respondents in April-March 2013 to investigate cloud-driven IT change.

“The Impact of Cloud on IT Consumption Models” study explored the dramatic changes affecting IT at all key consumption lifecycle stages — how businesses plan for, procure, deploy, operate, and govern IT. This is part two in a four-part blog series that will explore some of the findings of this study and discuss how today’s IT leaders can prepare for the new model for IT.

One of the clearest expressions of this cloud-driven change is the emergence of lines of business (LOBs) — human resources, sales, R&D, and other areas that are end users of IT — both as direct consumers of third-party cloud-based services, and as ever more prominent influencers of companies’ IT agendas. This represents a major paradigm shift from decades of IT tradition, when IT itself set the agenda and made all planning and procurement decisions.

Chalkboards. Textbooks. Stacks of papers and folders. All of these items can make anyone a little nostalgic and remind us of our time in primary and secondary school. While basic fundamentals remain the same, classrooms are evolving. The reason? The Internet.

This year’s back-to-school season has sparked many conversations around the future of the classroom. Most parents have seen the workforce and everyday life evolve as the Internet of Everything (IoE) begins to connect more people, places, data, and things. Yet questions about IoE in the classroom persist. That’s why in today’s “Ask the Futurist” post, I take a deeper look at how the IoE will impact the classroom of the future.

Today’s question comes from Rob Coote, a systems analyst for a public K-12 school district in Northern Alberta, Canada. Here’s his two-part question:

Question: “How do you envision the future of the ‘connected classroom’ and one-to-one learning in K-12 education? How do you see this impacting or changing the teacher’s role?”

As you may have heard, Cisco is hosting the inaugural Internet of Things World Forum, October 29-31 in Barcelona. The goal of the IoT World Forum is to gather the best and brightest thinkers, doers, and innovators from business, government, and academia together to accelerate the Internet of Things. At the end of the conference, participants will walk away with an enhanced understanding of what they can do to advance the Internet of Things, as well as strategies for maximizing its benefits—both for their organizations and the industry as a whole.

If you’re one of those thinkers, innovators, or doers and would like to attend, please check out the handy list of steps below to register. Registering for the IoT World Forum is actually a two-step process. Nominations and Registration. I detail both, below. Read More »

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